"I must admit the news came as a bit of a surprise. Managers' reputations are based on results and obviously we haven't been getting them, which has been disappointing," Gray told the clubs official website, www.safc.com
"When I heard the news last night I was surprised and know the other lads were. We came in this morning, had a chat with him and wished him and Steve all the best.
"But we've got to remain focused now. We've got nine games left and we all want to stay in the Premiership.
"As players we've got to try to impress the new manager when he comes in and to do that we've got to give one hundred per cent and be at our best. We want to do that anyway and to do well for ourselves.
"We all know that this is a huge club with a tremendous fan base and all just want to do well for the supporters. We want to be in the Premiership and the fans definitely deserve to be there.
"All we can do is get on with the job. We were out there this morning, training hard with Kevin Ball and Jocky Scott and just got on with it.
"Hopefully the new manager will come in and give us a lift and we can get out of trouble. He has nine games to do it and you never know."
